NWC not involved in managing campaign funds, says PDP

COMING on the heels of The Presidency’s denial of spending N2 trillion during the recent general elections, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday has dismissed allegations linking the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) to the mismanagement of the PDP Presidential campaign funds.

In a statement in Abuja yesterday, National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Olisa Metuh said the NWC never received any amount from any quarter for the campaigns. The PDP spokesman also added that NWC was not involved in the management of any funds released for the campaign, explaining that all funds during the campaign were directed and managed by the Directorates of the Presidential Campaign Organization, which the NWC had no control over.

“As a party, we have refrained from joining issues on this matter, but in the light of series of enquiries arising from allegations that the NWC embezzled the money meant for the campaigns, we need to make some clarifications.

“As the spokesperson of the PDP, I want to place it on record that the National Working Committee was not part of the management of funds for the Presidential campaigns.

The NWC did not receive any money neither was it in any way involved in how the funds were spent. Even as the National Publicity Secretary of the party and Chairman of the Publicity Sub-Committee, I did not receive any money from any body and no fund whatsoever was given to me for the campaign. “Apparently out of ignorance, this NWC has been unjustly demonized and labeled.

How can anybody expect the NWC to account for funds it never received? Can we account for funds we did not manage? The President in his wisdom set up Directorates and gave them the responsibility to directly manage the elections including the funding,” Metuh said.

The PDP spokesman decried the unnecessary heating up of the party system by certain elements who, apparently have been hired by some divisive elements within and outside the party to sponsor negative publications ostensibly to pull down the leadership.

Calling on these individuals to desist from such, the PDP spokesman urged all party members to unite and support the leadership in its re-engineering efforts aimed at returning the party back to power in 2019.

He said the primary focus of the leadership at the moment is how to ensure that the party’s candidates in all the rescheduled elections across the country emerge victorious while also perfecting all processes to ensure that those who fell victim of the irregularities that characterized the 2015 elections reclaim their mandates.

Meanwhile, the PDP has alleged that APC plans to unleash terror in Ondo State anytime from today. Speaking in Akure yesterday, the publicity secretary of the in the state, Hon. Banji Okunomo, said APC has perfected the plan to import youths from neighboring  states under the control of the opposition party to cause mayhem and disrupt the peace under the guise of protesting against the government in support of  the  deputy governor, Alhaji Alli Olanusi. The latter recently defected to the opposition party in the state.

The PDP said a man (names withheld), “has been mobilized to the tune of N10 million to execute the plot. The ruling party further divulged that the youths being imported are expected to begin to arrive in the state from this evening.

Calling on the people of the state to remain vigilant, the PDP also urged the Police and other security agencies to be on the alert and ensure that the law-abiding people are not molested and the peace not breached.